


Romance is a Privilege of the Rich

by AndreaLyn



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 18:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo McCoy is betrothed to be wed, but he doesn't want to follow his parents' whims, especially when he meets James Kirk. Written for the Space Married challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Romance is a Privilege of the Rich

**Author's Note:**

> Original Prompt: Leonard McCoy and James Kirk have been betrothed since they were kids. They haven't seen each other since Kirk was a baby/toddler. Neither want to get married - they feel they are too young, or they're "in love" with other - and have been avioding each other. They inadvertently meet - at a party, in school - not realizing who the other is and they become friend, then fall for each other. Jim and Bones tell each other about the betrothal, no names, but at that point want only to marry each other and resolve to tell their family that the arranged marries are off. Surprise when they get home and find out the other is their intended.

His parents are the wealthiest in all of Georgia or so he’s been told every day of his young life. He is slightly older than six when he is told that because of his parents’ standing as a couple of influence and money, that his marriage has been decided for him. He is to marry the son of a war hero and bring respect to the McCoy family. He is to follow the path that is already set out for him. He is expected to be the perfect son.   
  
When Leo is six, they travel to Iowa and his parents tour a lavish mansion as they give their approval in  _oohs_  and  _aahs_  and gush over the Kirks’ taste in art. Leo is left in the lobby with a datapadd and told to keep busy. If he’s lucky, they say, they’ll find James Kirk and introduce the both of them.  
  
One of the maids has been accompanying Leo the whole of the time, clasping his hand and explaining the statues and pictures softly. “You’re going to marry their little boy, you know,” Alyssa explains kindly, her freckled and youthful face lighting up with delight. “It’s going to be very romantic. I hear he’s the most adorable young man on this side of the continental United States.”  
  
“I don’t ever wanna get married,” Leo mutters, his drawl heavy. “Marriage gives you the cooties.”  
  
Alyssa gently laughs at that and presses a kiss to his disheveled hair. “You wait here, darling, and we’ll find Jimmy for you. It’s only fair if you get to meet your betrothed.”   
  
He’s left alone in the sprawling space of the lobby where only the statues are there to hear his conversation. He lets loose a long sigh and it echoes, reverberating around the walls to the tune of disdain. Leo doesn’t want to get married. He wants to grow up and be a doctor like his Dad and say ‘damn it’ a lot and maybe run off and see the world because it has tons of stuff in it. But he doesn’t wanna get married, ‘specially not to some kid named Jimmy.  
  
“Leo!” Except it sounds more like ‘weo’ and comes from the blonde-haired, blue-eyed tiny child being led into the room. He nearly trips on his way to Leo’s side, sprinting fast as he can and tackling him with a hug, clinging onto his shirt.  
  
Leo sighs and wraps one arm around the boy’s back, looking impatiently up at Alyssa. “Can’t we go home now?”  
  
“Leo, this is James Kirk. He’s going to be your husband one day,” Alyssa says proudly as James buries his head against Leo’s back, holding on to him tightly and sucking his thumb. “You two play nice and I’ll call you when your parents are ready for you to come to dinner.” She leaves with a wiggled-wave of her fingers and then Leo’s got nothing to do but have another staring contest with the statues or talk to James.  
  
Leo sighs again.  
  
“How come you sigh lotses?” James asks, his words coated with a thick lisp.  
  
“Because I don’t want to be here and I don’t want to get married,” Leo complains, trying to shake him off. “Stop clinging to me.”  
  
“Feels safe,” James argues, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Mommy says you’re gonna be my husband and Daddy says one day that means you’ll take care of me. So you can take care o’me now, too,” he points out.  
  
Leo’s smart for his age. While he ought to be in the first grade, he’s already studying the fourth. His parents whisper about how smart James Kirk is already, so maybe they’re already a pretty good match if they’re talking about brains, but still, he’ll tell his parents that he’s just not gonna get married and they’ll understand. One day.   
  
“Fine,” he agrees and ruffles James’ hair with his hand, getting a bright smile from the young boy. “Wanna go outside and look at clouds?”  
  
“With you?”  
  
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Leo agrees. He kind of feels like James isn’t about to let go of him and that he isn’t going to get much of a choice anyway. He holds James’ hand as they wander outside and find a place on the grass to stare up at the clouds and talk about the shapes they look like. James talks about the big house they’re going to have when they’re married.  
  
Leo can’t find it in his heart to tell the young boy that it’s just never going to be between them.   
  
He’s going to fall in love with someone, someone he really loves, true love (someone that’s his soulmate). He’s going to fall in love with them and then he’s going to marry  _them_  and tell his parents they can go goddamn screw their damn selves (like Daddy always tells his patients) because Leo’s only ever going to marry for love.  
  
“That one looks like you,” James says with a bright smile. “It’s cute,” he adds with a mad and mischievous giggle.  
  
Leo just doesn’t have the heart to tell James that they’re not going to get married. Maybe when he’s older and he’ll understand a lot better. Or maybe he’ll just do the opposite of his parent’s wishes and never get married. Then he won’t have to worry about any of this at all.  
  
*  
  
 _Twenty Years Later_  
  
Leo McCoy has been to many parties in the last five years, but this one is taking the cake. It’s some rich kid’s parents’ place and the party’s stretched out past the lobby filled with statues and expands down onto the lawn. It’s all vaguely familiar, but Leo’s been attending these kinds of parties for the last five years in a backwards attempt to try and rebel against his parents.   
  
He had known since he was a child that he was betrothed, but his parents had sat him down at sixteen and had told him all the details of the impending wedding that was going to happen on Leo’s twenty-seventh birthday, which was all-too-close now that twenty-six has come and almost gone. Of course, his parents refuse to give him the name of his husband-to-be, so he can’t even go see the guy. And besides that, there’s  _Jocelyn_. Sure, they’ve only gone on three dates, but he’s already starting to feel something for her and Leo hasn’t given up on the prospect of finding someone he loves. It might not be her because Leo’s always been sure he’d click with someone by the second date and he hasn’t quite done it with her, but she’s a great girl and she loves helping him piss off his parents.  
  
He’s shuffling through the party and makes his way to the bar, studying the offerings and letting his fingers trail over the glasses.  
  
It’s this way that his hand collides with someone else’s and he looks up to see the most beautiful man he’s ever seen in his life grinning at him. “What’s your poison?”  
  
“Got good Scotch? I feel like tonight’s the perfect evening for a scotch and soda,” Leo drawls. The beautiful boy looks dead at him and smiles the most perfect smile Leo’s ever seen and he throws away all conviction that he could never fall in love at first sight because he’s more than sure he just has at this very moment. “Thanks,” he says breathlessly when he’s handed an honest-to-god crystal glass.  
  
Leo’s folks may be rich, but he’s fairly sure they’ve never flaunted it like this family is.   
  
“You from around here?” the boy calls above the music, sliding to his side with a matching drink (lifting up the glass to raise a toast to Leo).   
  
Leo has to laugh at that, shaking his head. “God, no. Georgia,” he replies. “Living temporarily in San Francisco, but my parents were getting on my nerves so I ran away to get my head cleared up. Heard about this party and took a train up to see if it was worth the buzz.” Which is a lie. He’d taken the family’s private luxury shuttle, but no one needs to hear about those details.   
  
“Well? Is it?”  
  
Leo sips at his drink and licks his lips. “What’s your name?”  
  
“James. You?”  
  
“Leo,” he replies, breath catching in his throat as he watches James’ Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with the drink he’d just taken. He takes a sip of the drink made for him and grins when he tastes how strong it is, pleased that from a look alone, James has managed to figure out how he likes his alcohol. Of course, that might have been nothing more than a lucky guess and it might have been no more than an effort to get Leo drunk so that James can have his way with him.  
  
...not that Leo’s about to complain about this.   
  
“You wanna go upstairs and talk?” James offers with a breathtaking grin, looking all the part of the charming brigand. “There’s a bunch of empty rooms and this party’s getting...well...” It doesn’t take more than one look around to see what James means. Everyone has begun to pair up and find inventive positions and ways to swap each other’s spit.  
  
Leo has to wonder why James is interested in him. “You wouldn’t rather take up with one of the women?” Who, if rumors are right, are some of the richest heiresses in the country.   
  
“No,” James says pleasantly with a struck grin on his face. “Yours were the lips I noticed and you’re the one I want to talk to. C’mon. Bring the booze,” he encourages, slipping away before Leo can ask any other questions. With the scotch in hand, Leo slides away from the growing crowd and follows James, observing his absolutely gorgeous ass in the process of following him up the winding and majestic stairs.   
  
They’ve stopped passing other people some time ago and Leo’s starting to wonder how smart of an idea it is to follow a stranger away from the party. He ought to have just stayed and called Jocelyn, but he’s enraptured by this man that he barely knows.   
  
He leans his elbow against a room and grins broadly. “Here,” he says. “My room.”  
  
“... _your_  room. This is your family’s place?”  
  
“My family’s property, yes. And I promise you their tacky sense of decoration does  _not_  run in the family. As soon as I’m married...” He trails off, scowling slightly at something about the notion, which McCoy empathizes with. “I’ll have my own place and you can bet I’m not using the family’s on-call designer.”  
  
Leo wanders into the ornate and massive room. There’s a four poster bed in the corner, but James is leading him to a living-room set, sprawling back on a couch and patting beside him.   
  
“You’re the Leo that Christine talks about, right? Christine Chapel?”  
  
Leo has to laugh because of course he knows Chapel. Everyone seems to know Chapel. They’d gone to pre-med together while Leo hadn’t yet decided what he wanted to do with his life and Christine had been set on becoming a doctor. “I know her, yeah. What about her?”  
  
“We dated for a little, but when things split up, she said something about how I’d be perfect for you,” James says with a wink, apparently not possessing a single bone in his body that causes him to think twice before saying things like that. “Come on, sit down. I don’t bite unless you’re really lucky.” Leo drifts forward and cushions his drink while taking up the remainder of the couch. “She said that I could bring a little excitement to your life and that you were perfect to keep me in line when I do something insane like jump off a bridge or a ledge or, say, a mountain.”  
  
“You find fun in those things?”  
  
“Oh yeah,” James agrees readily and excitedly. “She said you’re good at patching people up.”  
  
“I did a triage course,” Leo sighs. “I’m not exactly a doctor just yet. I just did it because my family didn’t want me to. All they want is for me to learn how to be the perfect husband, but they don’t seem to understand that I want to marry for love. I mean, is that so crazy?”  
  
“When most of the richest families in the United States have been betrothing their children for the past twenty years in order to make land grabs...yeah,” James offers apologetically. “Eighty percent of the kids at this party are arranged to marry someone else, including me. I’m guessing you, too.”  
  
Leo offers a wry smile. “To the parents of this generation and land grabs, huh,” Leo mutters, toasting with his glass. He manages to get a long sip out of it before James is prying it away from him and setting it on the glass table in front of him. He looks to the side in time to catch James’ unreal and absolutely breathtaking blue eyes staring back at him with something like longing and intent. “What?”  
  
“I was just wondering how much I could piss off your parents if I kissed you right now,” James admits, his gaze stuck on his lips.   
  
“I’m not exactly going to go and tell them.”  
  
“Then I guess this kiss is all for me.” He slides his arm around Leo’s back and presses him down horizontal on the couch, slowly sliding his body atop while pressing their lips together, breathing heavily through his nose while adjusting to straddle Leo and press his hands above his head.   
  
The din of the party is easily heard below them, but Leo puts them all out of mind. They can’t give him what James is with eager lips and patient hands. He’s sliding those fingers down through Leo’s hair and stroking his neck before pushing up his t-shirt.   
  
“Wait,” Leo says breathlessly, parting from the kiss. “I don’t even know your last name.”  
  
“Names ruin things,” James insists.   
  
“You said you’re betrothed...”  
  
“So are you.”  
  
They stare at each other for a very long moment. Leo’s shirt has been pushed halfway up his chest and James’ eyes have gone a dark blue with lust. Leo knows that he’s protesting because he doesn’t want to have to give this up come a day in the not-so-distant future in which he gives vows to a stranger. Yet, some selfish part of him that’s only thinking about the right there and then has already made a decision for him.   
  
“James, I want this,” Leo confesses, voice low and guttural.  
  
“I could tell,” James teases lightly. “No regrets. We’ll do this, have fun. And that’s that.”  
  
That is not that, though.   
  
It’s three days later and the party has long since disbanded, but Leo hasn’t budged from the property. He’s spent the majority of his time with James, but they’ve wandered the grounds and talked about school, childhood stories, the future, likes, dislikes. They’ve shared meals and ordered in takeout as well as have watched movies on James’ large screen. They’ve lain around with Leo’s feet in James’ lap and discussed past girlfriends, boyfriends, and lovers.   
  
Leo’s starting to feel as though he’s definitely falling fast and hard for the beautiful blond-haired boy. He has no idea if James feels the same way about him, but sometimes he feels like he catches a look in James’ eye that says that he’s more than willing to take a leap off this high mountain and let himself fall in love with Leo.   
  
On day three, however, Leo has to leave because his parents are expecting him for dinner in the San Francisco summer-home.   
  
“I don’t want you to leave,” James says stubbornly, pressing kisses all over Leo’s neck to persuade him to stay just that hour longer when Leo’s already stayed six hours longer than he’s supposed to and is going to be far more than fashionably late to dinner. “Stay with me.”  
  
“You know I have to have dinner with my family.” Leo also knows that if it were up to him, he’d rather stay with James. “I’m already late and I still need to take a shuttle ride out there. I hate those goddamn things and I need to just get this over with.”  
  
“Let me come with you until California, then,” James pleads. “Come on. We’ve got property out there, I could go there after and we could stick to our agreement, but if you hate shuttles, you could use some friendly support. A helping hand,” he adds wickedly with a grin on his face.   
  
Leo knows that he should say no and that by agreeing, he’s only digging himself a deeper hole to get out of once he and James part ways. With James pressing kisses to his neck and with their bodies twined together, it’s next to impossible to say no.   
  
“Okay,” he sighs, giving in to the selfish desire instead of the cautious voice in the back of his mind that’s telling him that he’s not making a good decision. “You can come with me, but I just might throw up on you.”  
  
“I’ll try and make sure you don’t,” James teases, kissing Leo smack on the lips. “I have to pack! We have to get going, you’ll be late,” he insists, bolting up from the couch to start throwing things together in a duffel bag.  
  
Leo sighs and sprawls on the couch, half-hard and still not entirely wanting to leave. “So  _now_  you’re in a rush.”  
  
“Now I get to hold a panicky quivering mess of boyfriend on a shuttle.”  
  
Leo freezes up at about the same time as James does when they both realize just what he’s said. James winces heavily and Leo wishes that his heart didn’t sink down into the depths of his stomach because he wants that to be apt, but knows that it can’t be, not when they’d just be breaking each other’s hearts because it just can’t be like that.  
  
He tries to make that feeling dissipate and tries to focus on the fact that he gets to be with James, but all that he comes up with is the pinching sting of regret that he’s not going to be allowed to decide that he would far rather spend his time with James instead of some unnamed man miles and miles away.  
  
“Come on,” Leo says, swallowing down that angry regret. “We have a shuttle to catch.”  
  
*  
  
Family dinners for the McCoys have always been a stilted and awkward business. David McCoy sits at the head of the table, Eleanor sits to his left, and Leo sits at his right. This is the way it’s always been since he was young and this is the way it’s always going to be. Leo might get married if only to escape this, but the topic of the evening is exactly the opposite – escaping the marriage.   
  
After meeting James, Leo’s come away surer than ever that he’s not ready to give away his life just because his family arranged it when he’d been nothing more than a five-year-old.   
  
“Pass the bread, Leonard,” David remarks.  
  
He does. “I’m not getting married,” is his commentary as he passes the butter. They’ve had this discussion once every three months and Leo’s as determined as ever to get it across that he actually doesn’t want to dig his ring out of his drawer so he can give it to someone he’s met once in his life at a time that he could barely even form proper memories.   
  
“That’s nice of you to think, dear,” Eleanor politely remarks, “but the wedding is set, the minister is called, and your floral scheme has just been confirmed.”  
  
“I don’t even know what my own wedding is going to look like,” Leo points out sarcastically.  
  
“Blue roses, dear. To match his eyes. White and burnished orange table settings, to match your hair,” Eleanor says with a doting smile. Leo shifts uncomfortably and stabs at artichoke hearts on his plate that were prepared by a cook. He’s never had a meal cooked by his mother is his life and he’s not sure why that upsets him so much. “Leonard, honestly. It’s just a wedding. You’ll pursue your own hobbies and hold down your job, but you’ll share your bed, be richer, and have the potential to raise a child with one of the richest, most lauded men in the country.”  
  
He has the feeling that explaining about how he wants to marry someone he loves is going to go right over their heads. His mother and father had an arranged marriage, something they both tolerated because it had given them what they wanted out of life.  
  
Leo wants more and he’s not afraid to say it.   
  
“You can’t make me get married if I’m not here.”  
  
“Leonard, don’t be silly,” Eleanor sighs as she places more salad on her plate. “We’d just hire someone to find you and drag you right back home.” His mother has always had an uncanny ability to sound polite and pleasant as anything when she says things like that and it’s always chilled Leonard down to the very base of his spine.  
  
He knows that he’s fighting a losing argument, but he’s always been stubborn before. He gets that from his parents.  
  
“What if I’ve met someone else?” he contends.  
  
“That Jocelyn woman?” David chides with a cluck of his tongue. “Poor breeding and lineage. I’m sorry, Leonard, even if you wanted to renegotiate the terms, your wedding is set and in two months, you will be a married man and living on your own. It would do you well to accept this.”  
  
Leo opens his mouth to argue the fact that it’s not Jocelyn and he’s met another man that he could be happier with. He’s starting to wonder why he even bothers. His entire life, his parents have found some excuse to counter all of his about why he doesn’t want to marry and he’s gotten so tired of it.   
  
He doesn’t know James’ last name and they had parted ways at the airport, so there’s no chance of tracking him down and telling him that he doesn’t want the life that’s been chosen for him. He wants something else entirely. All he can do is cling to the last vestiges of a desperate hope that, somehow, James will be a knight in shining armour and somehow rescue him from all of this.  
  
“Pass the salad dressing, Leonard,” his mother’s voice summons him from his thoughts of James.  
  
He does, but it’s with a firm scowl on his face. As with all his losing arguments with his parents, he intends to make sure that he doesn’t look  _pleased_  about any of it.   
  
*  
  
Leo knows that the days between the party and leaving James’ house had been the best in his life, but he also knows that once they had parted ways at the airport with that breath-stealing, seemingly-endless kiss, the chances of them ever seeing each other are slim to nil. They had spent an incredible seventy-two hours together and not all of it had even been in the bed.  
  
They share interests in films, beer, and enjoy just hanging around and talking about nothing and all the stuff between and Leo hasn’t met anyone he clicked with so instantly in his life. Suffice to say, James hasn’t left his mind since they met and they exchanged a no-last-name pact to make sure that the feeling between them (that spark, that flicker of infatuation and something more) could last without each of them letting their family’s reputations ruin it.   
  
He’s locking up his personal townhome when he hears the loud honk of the horn.   
  
Leo turns and isn’t sure he believes his eyes when he sees the red-painted beauty idling outside on the street and the most beautiful man in the world sitting in the driver’s seat looking even better than he had at the party. It turns out that a good clean-up does him even better (not that he really needs it). Leo hefts his messenger bag a little higher over his shoulder as he descends the stairs, trying to hide his smile while he goes. “James,” Leo greets, leaning his elbows over the  _beautiful_  interior of the car, locking eyes with the man who’s plagued his dreams and fantasies since they met. “What happened to parting ways?”  
  
“I’m totally going my own way,” James says defensively, grabbing hold of Leo’s shirt and yanking him closer for a deep kiss. “I just figured I’d steal you while I go,” he murmurs against the kiss. Leo closes his eyes and lets himself drift the way he does when James is trying to convince him that there’s no better way to spend a day than making out.   
  
They’re breaking all the rules they said they’d use but as Leo slides into the passenger seat of the convertible, he can’t bring himself to care.  
  
He leans over and curls his palm around Jim’s cheek, leaning in for a longer kiss than the one before. They meet over the gear-changer and Leo’s a minute short of pulling Jim into his lap and  _really_  going at it, but Jim keeps trying to push him away.  
  
“Not here,” James mumbles against his lips. “We’re going to my family’s cabin by the lake. Four rooms, two bathrooms, a boat, and it’s all ours for the weekend,” he assures him with a grin. “ _You’re_  all mine for the weekend.”   
  
They laugh about the latest news on the radio as Leo flips idly through the channels and Jim runs his fingers through Leo’s windblown hair as they make their dash away from the city. James has made a habit of touching Leo’s hair and it soothes him, calms him down and away from all the thoughts he doesn’t like to focus on.   
  
It takes them two hours to reach the kind of wilderness that Leo misses about Georgia and hasn’t found in California until James has brought him right to it. Here, there are redwoods and mountains and fresh air and James is grinning broadly at him.  
  
“We’re almost there,” he promises and leans across the car to kiss Leo.   
  
Leo wonders if he should be concerned at how fast they’re falling in love, but he can’t call it the universal ‘they’ when he only knows how hard he’s falling into this never-ending spiral of affection for James. He wonders if he should worry because James has clearly looked him up to find him in California and he wonders what’s going to happen after this weekend.   
  
He doesn’t say a word about this until they arrive and James is showing him around the lush green lawn that leads down to the lake and the yacht moored there on the dock.   
  
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Leo exhales, even as James tucks his hand into the back pocket of Leo’s jeans. “I’m supposed to be getting married in a matter of months. I’ve tried all my life to get out of it, but I can’t. It’s inevitable.”  
  
James is looking at him with a sulking look on his face and Leo has the feeling that he’s spent his whole life getting what he wants.   
  
“James,” Leo sighs. “You know I love spending time with you and that I’m crazy about you. It’s why we decided no last names and no contact. I don’t know how much I can take spending more time with you and then knowing that I won’t ever get to be with you again.”  
  
“Have you ever thought about telling your parents to fuck off?” James wonders. “I mean it, Leo. You’re a grown man and sure, you have an arranged marriage. But what’s to stop you and me from eloping right this second and throwing our arranged marriages out the window?”  
  
“How about the inheritance?” Leo deadpans.   
  
“Besides that.”  
  
“I’d have to be damn sure I was in love with you if I planned on eloping and giving up my trust fund and my parents’ property, money, and trust in me,” Leo says pointedly.   
  
“So how about baby steps? How about you take me home? I’m not saying you have to, I’m just saying that you should think about it, okay?” James encourages, turning his body to wrap an arm around Leo’s waist and bring him closer. “The next two days are just you and me up here. I sent all the help home so we’ve got the whole place fully to ourselves and no one else is going to interrupt. You can figure things out later, but right now, I’ve got time to make up and you’re way too dressed.”   
  
Leo looks behind him to suggest they find a room in order to pursue James’ line of thought, but when he turns back to look at James, he’s already stripping his shirt off and hopping out of his trousers as he makes his way down the sand to the water.   
  
“...oh for god’s sake,” Leo sighs, but still takes off his shirt and drops it in the pile of clothes that James has started, adding trousers and his briefs to it as well before standing on the dock and hoping that none of James’ neighbours are looking out across the lake at this particular time. He stands on the edge of the dock, toes curling over the slats and watching James slowly swim on his back out to meet him. “You’re bad for me.”  
  
“I’m a great influence,” James says defensively, spitting water to the side as he swims until he’s five feet away from Leo. “You just don’t know it yet.”  
  
Leo smirks at him and arches his brow as if daring James to take that back. When nothing more is said about James and his wonderful influence, Leo plugs his nose and  _jumps_. It manages to cause a veritable tidal-wave chain reaction and douses James and all his pretty hair in the process.  
  
When he surfaces for air, James is slowly swimming closer along with the waves, wrapping one leg around Leo’s waist as their feet touch bottom.   
  
“We could just stay here,” James murmurs as he contorts his body to rock up against Leo and bring him closer via the friction of both their bodies rubbing together. “Your parents couldn’t find you here, could they? I’d never let them get at you.”  
  
It’s a nice idea, an idealistic and wonderful idea, but Leo has no idea just how intent and determined the family’s private detectives are and he’s not sure he wants to test them out. He’s currently more occupied with dragging his torso and lining it up with James’, rubbing their cocks together in the brisk water in an effort to both stay warm and to get off. He exhales shakily while reaching down to push a hand between them and stroke both of them in turn, letting out a choked cry in the process.  
  
“God,” James gasps. “I love it when you get vocal!”  
  
Leo presses his forehead to James’ shoulder as the water laps over them in constant and soothing waves while they fight to be the one stroking both their cocks as they rub up against each other. This part might not be love, but Leo still finds it more invigorating than any feeling he’s ever experienced in his life. His breath is shaky as he and James whine and keen and struggle to somehow make it so that they’re each getting enough attention in the brisk water.  
  
Leo’s thumb rubs with firmness down the shaft of James’ cock while James presses kisses that turn to hickeys along Leo’s neck – marks that his parents are bound to see, marks that are possessive and claiming, marks that make Leo gasp when he realizes how much he wants them.  
  
He’s going to wear each one proudly like a badge to show how much he wants  _James_.  
  
James shoves a full hand lower and starts stroking as hard as he can while Leo throws his head back to the clear-blue sky and tries to think about how much he doesn’t want this to stop. When he comes, James’ name is settling perfectly on his lips and all he can think about is giving James something in return. Slowly, he kisses him on the lips with all the intent in the world to turn this into a kiss to make James suffer, to strain his patience and to force him to remember Leo, even in this small way when they both go off and marry other people.  
  
Maybe they can go against beliefs and tradition. Maybe they can sneak away and see each other and try not to get caught.  
  
Maybe, maybe. It’s all a game of maybe.   
  
Leo works at marking up James’ neck to try and mirror the marks he’s bearing and by the time he’s started a second, James is shaking under his grip and coming, their small contribution to the lake likely to go unnoticed, but will never be forgotten by Leo. He laughs at the thought and wraps his arms snugly around James’ waist, holding on tight as they have to struggle to keep to shallower waters where they can retain their footing.  
  
They stay like that, sharing body heat in the brisk water, for longer than Leo can count on his hands and toes.  
  
“I don’t want you to go,” James admits quietly, barely more than a whisper as he tightens his grip (hands securely around Leo’s neck). Leo knows that he means more than just leaving from the little cabin. He means it in a grander sense and Leo feels exactly the same way. “I don’t want you to leave when I think that Chapel was right. You’re good for me. You’re so good for me and I want you around as long as I can have you.”  
  
Leo doesn’t point out that he’s due back to his parents’ house in three days for more suit-fittings.  
  
He doesn’t remind James that in three days, they have to part ways again.   
  
Maybe one day, they’ll both understand the sacrifices that they have to make in order to make their families proud.  
  
*  
  
In the matter of three days, Leo decides that he’s under some strange spell as cast by James. Instead of walking home with his head held high and the possible love of his life behind him, he’s come back with the man intending to do  _something_  about his situation for the first time in his life.   
  
Leo’s probably out of his mind to even be thinking about what he is, but he’s made his decision. He and James have been sitting in the red convertible for the last thirty minutes, staring up at the California-style mansion that his parents vacation at. James had given him an option and Leo’s actually taking it. More than that, he’s ready to dig out the ring that’s supposed to go to his betrothed and is ready to give it to James.   
  
“Leo, I know this is what I’ve been encouraging you to do, but are you sure about this?” James asks warily, one hand still on the steering wheel and the other braced against Leo’s thigh. “I mean, I’m pretty crazy about you, but this might be infatuation.”  
  
“I love you more than I love some person I’ve never met before in my life,” Leo says decisively, pulling out the chain from around his neck that he’s always kept the ring on, letting it pool in the palm of his hand. “I want you to have this. To show you and them how serious I am. James, I love you and you’re the one I want to marry, even if it means giving all of this up. I want you to have this ring,” Leo insists, prying the gold band off the chain and sliding it onto James’ hand, marvelling at the perfect fit and feeling like that had to mean something for them.   
  
James seems awed by this as well and grins widely at Leo. “See? Fate totally wants you to marry me instead of some guy.”   
  
It’s the encouragement that Leo’s needed and he’s already getting out of the car, eager to get inside and show James off to his parents in order to prove that he’s finally found someone that he genuinely cares about and wants to spend the rest of his life with. He hurries around the side of the car and opens James’ door for him when he’s too slow to get it himself, grinning broadly as he pries James into a stand and keeps holding onto his hand.  
  
“God, you’re chipper,” James laughs. “Tell me you and I can find some place in private to celebrate this mood of yours.”   
  
“I’m pretty sure my bedroom still has soundproofed walls,” Leo agrees, stopping short of picking James up into his arms and toting him into the house in a honeymoon carry. “Come on.”  
  
“Oh my god,” James laughs, trailing after Leo and letting his hand be tugged on desperately. “Maybe I’m not so sure anymore about marrying you,” he teases. “You didn’t even give me a real proposal, you kind of just shoved the ring on my finger and expected your gorgeous looks and rich background to be convincing enough. What happened to romance?”  
  
“Romance can wait until I’m sure my parents aren’t going to have me sent away to a reprogramming camp to get me to marry this rich asshole,” Leo announces, still yanking on James’ hand.  
  
James is laughing, but stops when he seems to realize that Leo had been fully serious. “...no.”  
  
“Yeah,” Leo sighs. “Good ol’ Mom and Dad.”  
  
“Okay, so apparently I’m never letting you out of my  _sight!_ ” James snaps, holding on a little tighter to Leo’s hand as they ascend the seemingly endless stairs and Leo digs out a key, not wanting to deal with any of the help when he just wants to get inside and bring James along with him. “Leo, please tell me you didn’t inherit your parents’ crazy gene?”  
  
“Well, I think I’m falling for you,” he deadpans. “So I’m pretty sure I got a little bit of it.”  
  
“Ha ha, you’re so funny,” James notes evenly as they sneak through the long entrance corridor towards the sounds in the backyard.   
  
Leo can hear his parents discussing the gardenias from the patio and he tightens his grip on James’ hand as they go from a world that’s safe and they understand to one that Leo’s never been the victor in. He’s not sure about this, but he feels like if he doesn’t at least attempt to do something for himself, he’s as responsible for an inevitable life of misery as his parents are.  
  
“Leo!” His mother greets him with a pleased voice – happier than he’s ever heard her, actually. She rises from her gardening stoop and greets him with a warm kiss on his cheek. “Darling, we were starting to worry about you. Your father had the PI on speed-dial. We’re just glad to see you’re fine.”  
  
“Of course I’m fine, Mom, I’m an adult,” Leo protests, feeling the frustration brim and threaten to spill. “And I came here to tell you that I’m tired of being told what I’m going to do with my life. James,” he announces, pulling him up from behind him. “James is the only person that I want to marry and whatever you have planned in five weeks will have to wait because I’m not going through with a loveless marriage,” he announces, voice getting louder and getting his father’s attention. “I want to be happy and I want to spend my life with somebody that I care about, someone that makes me feel good inside and out and can make me shiver right down to my toes,” he says, sharing a dazed and loving grin in James’ direction. “I’m going to spend my life with him.”  
  
When he looks back to see his parents’ furious expression, he finds himself suddenly shocked and lacking.  
  
“...you’re not angry,” Leo says, trying to interpret the bemused smile on David McCoy’s face and the chuckle that his mother is trying to hide behind a dirt-covered gloved-hand. “Why aren’t you angry?”  
  
“Oh, Leo, darling,” his mother says with great joy and clasps him by the face, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “We’re just glad to know we did the right thing in matching you up.”  
  
 _What in good god’s name is going on?_  Leo wonders to himself, staring at James with great confusion. The sunlight glints off of the gold band around James’ finger and Leo’s about ready to ask if everyone has been doing drugs while he hasn’t been around to put sense into their minds.   
  
“Leonard McCoy,” his father sighs. “Don’t tell me I raised an idiot. Why on earth did you think that ring fit as neatly as it did around that finger of James’?”  
  
“Uh...”  
  
“We sort of just thought it was a sign,” James admits, sounding as confused as Leo feels.  
  
“James Kirk,” Leo’s father announces, clapping Leo on the shoulder. “Leo, this is your betrothed. The man you’ve been trying to get away from all your goddamn life when we spent near a million dollars trying to get you matched up in personality and intelligence to someone that’d fit with you. You really think we’d just pass you off with a stranger?” He squeezes Leo’s shoulder just too-tight for comfort and scoffs. “Now, are you going to keep complaining about your wedding or will you actually sit down with us and do some planning so your mother will stop complaining about the ulcers it’s giving her,” David insists. “You boys need to pick the registry and we’re having a hell of a time arranging the music.”  
  
Leo is still speechless, James’ hand in his as he tries to put together all the pieces so that things make sense, but he’s still lost.  
  
“James...he’s my...”  
  
“Your husband-to-be, yes,” Eleanor replies cheerfully. “Oh, and boys, your tickets for the honeymoon came in. I hope you both like Paris. You’ll start there and traverse to Rome before spending a month on our private island on the Greek coast.”  
  
“I think I need...” Leo stumbles back, hand slipping out of James’ grasp. “I need to just...I need...” He shakes his head, gaze catching with each of his parents before he turns and marches straight for the house without another word, hearing James call after him with a desperate, ‘Leo!’ but it doesn’t stop him as he nearly vaults up the stairs three-by-three to get to his childhood bedroom in this vacation home. He wants to just compose himself and figure out what all of this means. It’s not just a manipulation of his heart, he has to think that. He can’t just believe that his parents had a hand in what he feels for James.  
  
He sits down on his bed, hands digging into the fabric as he tries not to be entirely too weary, staring at the wall when James comes in after him, breathless and eager.  
  
“Leo!” James announces, stalking forward and pushing him down on the bed until they’re both horizontal, James hovering precariously over him and pressing kisses down his neck. “Didn’t you hear? You and me,” he goes on, giddy and delighted. “We’re gonna be a we, we can be together, it’s perfect,” he murmurs, pressing a long kiss to Leo’s lips and despite the confusion amassing in Leo’s mind, he can’t deny James anything and cups his face as he kisses back harder, writhing on the bed so that James is pushed firmly flat atop him and there’s hardly any space between their bodies. James slowly inches his way up until he’s properly straddling Leo and grins wickedly as he flashes him a mad grin. “You’re my fiancé. I can do all sorts of wicked things to you now and not have to worry about it.”  
  
Leo just tightens his grasp around James’ hips, still confused, but that’s starting to ebb away in the face of his sheer relief and delight that he actually isn’t going to marry some stranger at all.   
  
“I dug this out of the safe at the cabin,” James is murmuring, sliding something cool and perfectly-fitting onto his finger. “I was going to give it to you anyway, but now it’s actually yours. You’re actually mine.” He eases back and grins with sheer delight.   
  
“Shit,” Leo exhales breathlessly as the fear and confusion ebbs away in one final pulse. All that’s left is the joy and relief. “We’re going to get married.”  
  
“And I’m going to make you so sore you can’t  _walk_  on the honeymoon,” James delights in saying, a grin so wide on his face that he can’t stand it.   
  
It’s that simple thought that makes Leo feel capable of dealing with things like  _registry_  planning and deciding whether or not there’ll be appetizers served by waiters at the reception.   
  
*  
  
 _Epilogue_  
  
The marriage gift from Leo’s parents is massive. James still can’t over the fact that the house is big enough to have its own zip code, that they own part of the  _ocean_  or that they have all the help in the world so James isn’t going to set the kitchen on fire again like the last time (he’d just been trying to make Leo pancakes before the wedding). He’s wandering to the pool outside with magazine in hand, idly sliding sunglasses on as he descends the stairs, robe flickering open behind him.   
  
“Leo,” he calls out, sipping at his coffee while staring at the newest photographs of the both of them. They make the papers once a week and this time it’s in one of those people-friendly publications that have celebrities and rich people doing regular tasks. They’ve caught James and Leo outside the ice cream shop. A small trickle of vanilla had fallen on Leo’s palm and James had bent down to suck it off, pressing a kiss to his ring finger in the process.  
  
James looks like he’s stupidly in love, but they’ve both made a habit of looking good for candid pictures. Leo’s in his white shirt and jeans and James is wearing the beat up polo and dark denims he’s tends to wear if he’s ever running errands.   
  
“Polo,” Leo calls back idly, arching his back and peering at James upside down from the chair he’s lounging on. “Been waiting for you to get up.”   
  
James’ breath catches slightly when he sees that Leo’s ensemble of the day consists of nothing more than a pair of tight blue swim-shorts and a white robe that’s open, leaving little to the imagination. They’ve been spending time outdoors, so his muscled chest is golden and gleams with the sunscreen that he’s applied. He looks  _delectable_  and James thanks God that they don’t have plans for the day.   
  
He rounds the lawn-chair and straddles Leo easily, dropping the magazine on his chest while idly sipping at his coffee, pressing a kiss to his lips.  
  
“Morning, husband dearest.”  
  
“Good morning, husband most annoying,” Leo retorts with a grunt in turn, wiggling to try and loosen James from him, to no avail. He picks up the magazine and turns it around to look at the page James had opened it to – the picture of them – before letting out a laugh. “I still think that you deliberately poked a hole in the bottom of my cone just so you could lick it off me.”  
  
“Licking it off your hand is an innocent gesture!”  
  
“And licking it off my hipbones later?”  
  
“Makes me very, very happy that your car windows are tinted,” James dutifully replies, settling back into the straddle and getting comfortable as Leo holds him there with one hand on his waist. “Your mother called. She wants us to have dinner so we can start discussing potential surrogates to carry our children. Don’t get scared, but apparently you have a cousin and my sister-in-law is also willing.”  
  
Leo groans heavily. “We got married, wasn’t that enough for them?”  
  
“It’s never enough. And then when we have one child, it’ll be ‘well, boys, why don’t you have  _two_?” he mocks Leo’s mother with an increasingly apt voice-mimic. “Don’t worry,” he promises as he adjusts and braces himself on Leo’s shoulders. “I promise that we’ll have a couple years of just us before we give in to their demands,” he whispers, sliding the robe off of Leo and grinning as he moved his palms down to the swim trunks. “Can we have some newlywed time now?”  
  
“You can have all the newlywed time in the world,” Leo assures and tugs James down even closer than before. “And I’m pretty sure I saw a photographer lurking on the property, so these are going to give our parents some more heart palpitations.”  
  
James, for his part, just shrugs blithely. “After what they put us through, they’ve earned a little payback,” he murmurs against Leo’s lips, kissing him until neither of them can breathe.  
  
Kissing him until Leo feels safer than he’s ever been. 


End file.
